Just a few miles (400) after purchasing the new 2008 F-350 I left on a hunting trip with my 3000 lb bed mounted camper. I traveled aprox 3000+ miles during this trip. When I returned home I found the tail pipe to have black soot. On a previous thread someone suggested I clean the tips and see if it occured again. I'm not sure that this was a good idea, but i did just that. Sence then I now have put something on the order of 600 mile of mixed driving and there hasn't been a soot collection like the previous. Some discoloration but nothing like the previous. I have never experienced a regeneration as most people discribe on this sites threads. I've never experienced an increase in RPM, white smoke, loss of power, mpg indication dropping or anything that makes me beleive it's gone into regen. This is a Job 2 truck that I took delivery on in early October. I guess I'm just wondering, is there any problem or just hang-on I'll see a regen soon enough. Is there a way the service department can look at codes to determine if it has regen when I take it in for the 5000 mile service?
Thanks... gene

 

Yea if you had a sooty looking tail pipe than that would be an indication of a bad dpf, I was at a dealer the other day talking to my friend and he had an 08 Super Duty on his lift and I asked him what was wrong and he showed me the tail pipes and said that there not suposed to get black, which was a sign of a cracked dpf. Not going into regen in 3000 miles would also definitly make me think that something is wrong. All superdutys with the 6.4 go through regen its a way to meet emissions, regen is meant to clean out the soot trapped in the dpf that helps make the 6.4L meet the new emissions.

 

Let's not forget that some SDs will likely not see an active regen very often since they are working harder by pulling loaded trailers all the time. An engine that operates at 75-90% load all the time will benefit from passive regens and you won't know it's happening.

 

So far from what I've seen from my truck is that when I'm not working it and it goes into active regen there is no soot or smoke produced. After towing heavy loads and just really working it the pipes get a little soot but doesn't regen as often. I guess when passive regeneration occurs it produces a little smoke compared to active regen. Which would kind of make sense because you are not going to see the high DPF temps in passive regen like you would in active.

 

SouthTexasDiesel, thanks for your input. Your assesment makes sence to me. I will keep an eye on it though... thanks gene

 

If you have black soot in your tail pipe you have a serious DPF problem. Mine is in for replacement at 4800 miles. With the new diesels that do regen there are NO black tail pipes//That is what regeneration is all about.

 

Has anyone deleted the DPF altogether? My buddys' got a Cummins 6.7 and aftermarket guys have already made complete 4 and 5 inch turbo back systems with some little "black boxes" (I think Smarty makes them) that delete regen aswell. No DPF and they smoke like crazy i.e. YouTube. I was just curious as I'm a 6.0 guy.